Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, is scheduled to speak Monday evening at the Santa Monica Public Library, delivering “a message of peace, aloha and service above self,” according to her campaign.
The event is scheduled for 6-8:30 p.m. Admission is free. More information is available at www.facebook.com/events/2226156637644597/
During an appearance at the Malibu Library Sunday, Gabbard said her campaign is a “people-powered movement that is focused on bringing about the vision our founders had for us of a government of the people, by the people and for the people.”
“It is heartbreaking to see how off our country has gotten from that vision, how far away we are from having a representative government that’s truly for the people,” Gabbard said.
“What we are ultimately dealing with is a government that is of the rich and powerful, by the rich and powerful and for the rich and powerful, that is of the special interests and greedy corporations, by and for the special interests and greedy corporations and we the people are left behind.”
The 38-year-old Gabbard describes herself as “a champion for protecting our environment, ensuring clean water and air for generations to come, investing in infrastructure and a green energy economy, health care for all, civil liberties and privacy, support for small businesses, criminal justice reform, sustainable agriculture, breaking up the big banks.”
A major in the Hawaii Army National Guard, Gabbard last month criticized rebranding the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as United Airlines Memorial Coliseum.
“It’s crazy that we would even have to have this discussion,” Gabbard said. “As we talk about the necessity to put people ahead of profits, a proposal like this would disrespect and dishonor those who put their lives on the line for our country. I take serious offense at such a proposal.”
The Coliseum Commission in 2012 approved a $69 million naming-rights agreement to help fund the $270 million renovation of the stadium, which opened in 1923. United Airlines informed USC on March 29 it is “amenable” to backing away from the agreement.
USC has said it is willing to instead name the stadium “United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum,” but only if the airline supports the switch.
United Airlines has not commented on that proposal.
Gabbard was first elected to office in 2002 as a member of Hawaii House of Representatives. At 21, she was the youngest person elected in Hawaiian history, a congressional aide said.
While serving in the Hawaii House of Representatives in 2003, Gabbard enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard. She volunteered to deploy with her fellow soldiers in 2004, dropping plans to campaign for a second term.
Gabbard again voluntarily deployed with her unit to the Middle East in 2009, leading her platoon on a variety of security missions, conducting non-military host-nation visits and serving as a primary trainer for the Kuwait National Guard.
Gabbard was elected to the Honolulu City Council in 2010. She was elected to the first of four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, the first Hindu member of Congress.
Gabbard was born in American Samoa. Her mother is white, born in Indiana, grew up in Michigan, was raised Methodist and later converted to Hinduism.
Her father is of Samoan and European descent, grew up in the South, attended a Catholic seminary and is a lector in the Catholic church.
Gabbard’s family moved to Hawaii when she was 2 years old. She was home-schooled through high school except for two years at a missionary academy for girls in the Philippines.
Gabbard received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Hawaii Pacific University.
If elected, Gabbard would be the nation’s first woman president, the youngest — breaking the record of Theodore Roosevelt, who was 42 when he succeeded the assassinated William McKinley in 1901 — the first sitting House member to be elected president since James Garfield in 1880 and the first born in the 1980s.